Highly pathogenic bird flu has made its first appearances in U.S. commercial poultry flocks this season, affecting one turkey farm in South Dakota and one in Utah and raising concerns that more outbreaks could follow.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that avian influenza, which is deadly to commercial poultry, was confirmed in a flock of 47,300 turkeys in Jerauld County, South Dakota, on Oct. 4 and at a farm with 141,800 birds in Utah’s Sanpete County last Friday.

The outbreaks are the first reported among commercial flocks in the U.S. since the disease struck two turkey farms in the Dakotas in April. Infected flocks are normally destroyed to prevent the flu’s spread, and then the farms are decontaminated.

  • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Objectively, vegan diets are better for the planet than equivalent omnivorous ones.

    There’s honestly more impactfull things we could collectively do like decarbonizing electricity and transportation, building walkable cities, etc. You definitely don’t have to go vegan to be an environmentalist, and I’m not even sure it’s the highest impact personal change you could do.

    There’s some particularly bad vegan foods for the environment, like air freighted berries. But those foods aren’t exclusively vegan, and aren’t hard to avoid. The foods you’d actually consume a lot more of as a vegan like beans and nuts are way better for the environment than beef or chicken.

    • Sybil@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The fluffy rhetoric in your magazine doesn’t actually align with the facts as laid out in that study. The study doesn’t actually find that being vegan helps the environment at all. it only shows that the consumption habits of vegans require less environmentally destructive practices than those of non-vegans, but it doesn’t show that any less destructive behavior actually takes place. in fact it looks like more destructive behavior takes place year-over-year regardless of whether vegans exist.

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Companies exist to maximize profit.

        If more vegans exist, the normal thing you’d expect is decreased production of meat products and increased production of beans.

        The effect from one person is negligible, but it adds up.

        • Sybil@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If more vegans exist, the normal thing you’d expect is decreased production of meat products and increased production of beans.

          not necessarily. there are certainly more vegans today than any time in the past (i’m just guessing here), but more animals are killed than any time in the past, as well.